What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof.

Christopher Hitchens (1949 - 2011) was an Anglo-American author and journalist. His books made him a prominent public intellectual and a staple of talk shows and lecture circuits. He was a columnist and literary critic at Vanity Fair, Slate, The Atlantic, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry and a variety of other media outlets. He was named one of the world's "Top 100 Public Intellectuals" by Foreign Policy and Britain's Prospect.

"The annual Texas Freethought Convention draws atheists, agnostics and humanists from around the world, and this year Christopher Hitchens is the star attraction.
David Brill meets the renowned writer and thinker, as he battles cancer and uses the last of his strength to denounce religion as immoral."http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/story/about/id/601379/n/Fighting-Faith

Anne Crumpacker’s new website on secular parenting dedicated to Hitchens.

"If you’re a regular here, you’ll surely remember the story of Mason Crumpacker, the eight-year-old Texas girl who asked Christopher Hitchens to advise her on good books to read. It was a touching story, complete with Mason’s heartfelt thank-you letter to Hitch and a narrative of the episode written by Anne Crumpacker, Mason’s mom."

There may conceivably be a reason to doubt the truth of the Obama administration’s claim that the “Quds Force” of the Islamic Republic of Iran went into the free market for murder in order to suborn the killing of the Saudi ambassador to the United States. But neither the apparently surreal nor the apparently flagrant nature of the thing would constitute such reasons.

Muammar Qaddafi should not have been killed, and his surviving son should be captured.By Christopher Hitchens

Surrendering to a feeling of deep impotence and slight absurdity, I borrowed an iPad on Thursday afternoon and used it to send my first-ever message by this means. It was addressed to one of those distinguished Frenchmen who have been at the fore in pressing the outside world to remove Muammar Qaddafi from the obscene toadlike posture in which, for more than four decades, he has squatted on the lives of the Libyan people.

Mitt Romney and the weird and sinister beliefs of Mormonism.By Christopher Hitchens

I have no clear idea whether Pastor Robert Jeffress is correct in referring to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more colloquially known as the Mormons, as “a cult.” There do seem to be one or two points of similarity. The Mormons have a supreme leader, known as the prophet or the president, whose word is allegedly supreme.

Here's the plan:
1. Make a short video. Aim for about 1 min length, give or take. Say anything you like, keeping in mind the nature of the effort. The only thing we ask is:

2. Close your video by raising a glass. It has been pointed out that Johnny Walker Black is Hitchens' drink, but obviously use what you like.

3. Email your video to thehitchappreciation@gmail.com. Use any means you like to send the file, but YouSendIt and WeTransfer are recommended if your regular email doesn't cooperate. YouSendit.com has minimal registration requirements, and WeTransfer has a 2G capacity and no registration. Speaking of file submission specs:

4. Keep the file size as small as is reasonable for now. We don't know how many submissions we will ultimately get. Quicktime & mov have been offered as desirable submission formats, but obviously the editors will do their best to work with whatever you're able to turn in.

Southbank Centre / Royal Festival Hall
November 9, 2011. 8.30pm
"In this special event for Intelligence Squared, Hitchens will be in conversation via satellite in Washington with his friend Stephen Fry who'll be on stage live at Royal
Festival Hall. This is a chance to hear one of the great public intellectuals of our age discussing politics, literature and, as he puts it, 'the things that make life worth defending - foes like faith and false consolation'.

Texas Freethought Conv:
The Dawkins/Hitchens speeches and Q&A will be available soon in professional quality video.
The actual conference DVD set will be on sale soon, but the Dawkins/Hitchens event will be a FREEBIE on behalf of the RDF, TFC, AAA and the professional film crew who make their living helping our movement.

Text of speech presenting the Richard Dawkins Award on behalf of Atheist Alliance of America, Houston, 8th October 2011

"Today I am called upon to honour a man whose name will be joined, in the history of our movement, with those of Bertrand Russell, Robert Ingersoll, Thomas Paine, David Hume. He is a writer and an orator with a matchless style, commanding a vocabulary and a range of literary and historical allusion far wider than anybody I know. And I live in Oxford, his alma mater and mine."

What the execution of a World War II traitor can teach us about assassinating American-born terrorists.By Christopher Hitchens

The first thing to say, when reviewing the question of what America should do about those of its citizens who advocate the murder of random numbers of its civilians, is that it is flat-out astonishing to see the debate being conducted at all. Faced with jeering, sniggering, vicious saboteurs who hide from the daylight and pop up on blog and cheap CDs, calmly awarding religious permission for the capricious taking of life, what do we imagine Vladimir Putin would do?

HOUSTON — Christopher Hitchens, probably the country’s most famous unbeliever, received the Freethinker of the Year Award at the annual convention of the Atheist Alliance of America here on Saturday. Mr. Hitchens was flattered by the honor, he said a few days beforehand, but also a little abashed.

"Hitchens’ speech did not disappoint. He talked about his illness and noted that over the last year, he’d been coming to Houston regularly for treatment, presumably at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He was emphatic that though his “time” is rapidly approaching, he wouldn’t stop doing his best to shed light on the fraudulent claims made by religion, a line that brought the crowd to its feet."

Those who protest the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki have to say what they would have done instead.By Christopher Hitchens

Probably because it mainly provides the kind of short-term cinematic satisfaction that characterizes the Hellfire terminus, the flashy ending of al-Qaida’s main media star has only led to the reopening of some pressing questions about the nature of the jihadi menace.